Saturday, December 31, 2016

First, THANK YOU, THANK YOU. Thank all of you from the bottom of my heart for your great support to 80-20 PAC.

(a) You have given selflessly of your time to respond to PAC's "Calls To Action". Your pressure from the grassroots, coupled with 80-20's political connections and knowhow, induced our political establishment to respond to our grievances.

(b) You have given generously of your money, which enabled 80-20 PAC to to carry out its political actions on a scale large enough to make YOUR grievances heard.

Secondly, GOOD NEWS. The following Board members will collectively lead 80-20 PAC in the coming year.

Kathleen To: Co-coordinator and Secretary,

Yin-long Qiu: Co-coordinator and V.P. in charge of Chapters, and

Jing-Li Yu: Treasurer

To get to know more about each of these noble souls, please click here.

In addition, PAC's board has instructed these officers to schedule a membership vote for Board members and officers within one year, in accordance with Bylaws article 3.2.3. That means, by 2018, 80-20 PAC will operate in complete accord with its posted Bylawsagain, ending the aftermath of its 2013 retrenchment. That will be a GREAT day.

Finally, A WISH!

The Asian Am. community has many high-achieving individuals. But very few are willing to TAKE SOME RISKSto stand up for our community. I hope that in a small way, my colleagues and I have collectively set an example*. This seemingly self-glorifying statements may make me the laughingstock of our community. But I am willing to risk it, because it needs to be said.

I wish that henceforth more capable AsAms would step forth to help win equal opportunity for the entire AsAm community which will also help to make America "a more perfect Union."

Respectfully,

S. B. Woo

President and a volunteer for the past 18 years, 80-20 PAC, Inc.

http://www.80-20initiative.com/index.php

* We have stuck my necks out often, but we were not hurt at all. Indeed, I might have unduly and undeservingly benefited from taking the risks. It may be that we were just foolish but lucky. But doesn't the world need a few fools sometimes?

Announcement:

Last month, as a parting gift for PAC, I mounted a fundraising effort to add to PAC's diminishing war chest. Up till today, $28,200 has been raised, Including contributions from

Prof. Mu-Ming Poo, Berkeley, CA: $5,000

Kenneth Fong, Palo Alto, CA: $2,000

Marisa Y. Chuang,, Berkeley, CA: $2,000

Wai-Yim Ching, Leawood, KS : $1,000

Gang-Yu Liu, Davis, CA : $1,000

Hezhong Ma, Chesterfield, MO: $1,000

Lung-Sheung Ng, Berkeley, CA : $1,000

Jonathan Wang, Chicago, IL: $1,000

S. B. Woo, Newark, DE: $1,000.

If you are interested in pitching in, please send your check, payable to 80-20 PAC and mail it to Katy Woo

Monday, December 19, 2016

Is 80-20 PAC AsAms' Best Political Tool?

Q: Gov. Woo, why do you claim that 80-20 PAC is the most powerful political weapon for AsAms?

A: Actually, I claim more than that. :-) I claim that 80-20 PAC is by far the most powerful AsAm political weapon available today. My statement takes our elected and appointed AsAm officials into consideration, as well.

Q: That's hard to believe. Can you explain?A: Here is why. The appointed officials could be un-appointed the next day.So they are not likely to stick their necks out for us. None of our elected officials has the strong political base (unlike some black House members) who can get re-elected without the support of their respective political parties. They are not free agents. To be sure, in many discrimination issues, we need the help of these officials. For those AsAm officials who really stand with our community, sometimes they are most helpful. However, if and when an earth shaking event affecting AsAm's core interest happens (remember Japanese internment and President-elect Trumps' campaign rhetoric?), only 80-20 has the independence and ability to fight on your behalf.Q: OK. I see it now. Still, don't the appointed & elected officials have muchmore human & financial resources at their disposal than 80-20 PAC?

A: Yes. However, the resources are NOT free for them to use as they see fit. If a cabinet secretary or a Congressman were to use their resources to save the AsAm community from a crisis, the cabinet secretary would be dismissed and the Congressman would most likely not get re-elected. Only 80-20 PAC has the legal right and self-interest to devote itself to help out the AsAm community, come hell or high water.

Q: OK. I am understanding more now. However, is 80-20 PAC powerful in an absolute sense?

A: No, not on an absolute scale, when compared with others outside of the AsAm community. 80-20 is far far below AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) andNAACP. AIPAC's annual expenditure was $69 million in 2014. The NAACP is the darling of the mainstream media, corporations and foundations. 80-20 has mostly only courageous, and perhaps wise, war horses, with fairly good political knowledge. Better yet, we BEG all AsAm orgs to work together so that our community will be much stronger politically.

COMMENT: Thank you for being brutally honest, Gov. Woo. You are saying that 80-20 PAC is far from being strong enough on an absolute scale But when it comes to the CRUNCH time for AsAms, 80-20 PAC is by far the best available today. Additionally, you yearn for a day when all AsAm orgs will work together.

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Please join 80-20 PAC today. We have stronger leverage when we have a stronger membership base. A 1-Year Basic Membership is $35, a family membership (2 votes) is $50, a Life Membership is $1,000, and there are several other options, as well. To Join, click here. Your membership will start on 1/1/2017.

Friday, December 09, 2016

Did AsAm political groups, whether they supported Dems or GOPs, sufficiently seize the opportunity of the 2016 election to win equal opportunity? Here is a nationwide review:

A. On the Hillary Clinton (HC) side:

(A1) 80-20

AFTER HC gave written promises to help AsAms achieve many specific goals, 80-20 endorsed her. 80-20 PAC spent time and money to help her fight off Sanders in the Calif. Democratic primary. 80-20 REWARDS politicians who share our rightful concerns.

In the general election, 80-20 invited HC to call in during our Endorsement Convention and ask for our support, HC waswilling to send a high-ranking surrogate,but not willing to make the call herself.As a result, 80-20 endorsed HC with reservation only, & didn't invest 1 penny to help HC in the last 4.5 months of the election.

(A2) Non-80-20 groups:

A few AsAm groups helped HC, including the Congressional Asian Pacific Am Caucus. To our best knowledge, none asked for nor obtained promises from HC in exchange for their support.

A few Chinese Am groups, composed mostly of immigrants from China, campaigned aggressively and conspicuously for DT using WeChat and other campaign tactics. To our best knowledge, none asked for nor obtained promises from DT in exchange for their support.

May We All Resolve to Ask for Promises from Candidates?

Why get into politics? To help America & ourselves! So, shouldn't we always ask for the candidates to help our community back, before supporting them? Helping a presidential candidate without getting the promises back does NOT help us as a community.

Is the rumor that 90% of Chinese Ams voted for DT true?

No. The groups that made such claims couldn't even deliver votes in their own little backyards, much less nationally.

The groups aggressively endorsed political candidates using WeChat. Here is their won-lost record:

2) To be effective at the US Senate and Congressional level would require huge number of votes and money, especially in CA. So let's look at the won-lost record of their Assembly race endorsements. Assembly districts are small.

From SF to LA, this group endorsed 10 candidates, one D and 9 Rs. In 9 of those 10 districts, there were 20% to 36% AsAm voters. Of the 10 endorsed, 2 incumbents, 1 D and 1 R won. All the rest lost, including 2 incumbent Republicans.

The group stated that it wanted to prevent the Dems in CA from obtaining a supermajority in the state Senate and Assembly, which didn't exist BEFORE the 2016 election. However, AFTER the election, the Dems achieved a supermajority in both Senate and Assembly. PLEASE, you be the judge about the validity of that rumor.

NY Times' exit polls reported that AsAms gave HC an 65-29 advantage. 80-20 did a huge poll of Chinese Ams that agreed with that report.

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Click here to join 80-20, which is buying reinsurance to add to your security.

Are You a WeChat Member? 80-20 needs your help.

80-20 wants to reach out to all WeChat members. If you are willing to post 80-20 e-newsletters on your own WeChat site, which will be already have been translated into Chinese, please email me your name. 80-20 is planning an "Operation Reach Out." Thanking you in anticipation, I am